Recall of Segway Announced by CPSC 569
mshiltonj writes "The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a voluntary recall of the Segway human transporter. The hazard is that under certain operating conditions, particularly when the batteries are near the end of charge, some Segway HTs may not deliver enough power, allowing the rider to fall. This can happen if the rider speeds up abruptly, encounters an obstacle, or continues to ride after receiving a low-battery alert."
$30M! (Score:5, Informative)
about the total number of Segway's out there: 6,000. Given that Amazon [amazon.com]
sells them about $5,000 that means that there are $30M of Segways out there.
Of course many were probably sold below that price and Segway LLC will be sharing
that with the retailer, but still not bad for scooter.
Second, interesting thing is that the problem is fixed by a *software upgrade*
and not something physical.
John.
No Duh, the device is unstable (Score:5, Informative)
That when the power starts to drain, the device becomes unstable (as the motors no longer have enough power to keep it upright after a mild upset) is hardly suprising, and indicitive of the fundimentally stupid design (but fantastic engineering) that is the segway.
Re:Their own dumbass fault (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Their own dumbass fault (Score:5, Informative)
As for power steering, there are a very limited number of cars with electric power steering. To quote Jim Kerr, "So what vehicles have electric power steering? While TRW did make some systems in the early 80's, such as the Fiero that used an electric motor to drive the hydraulic power steering pump, the first real application had to be the Acura NSX. Compact, light and responsive, the steering system matched the characteristics of this aluminum bodied sports coupe. Honda again introduced a system on the S2000 sports car. Steering response and feel are excellent. Smaller, lighter electric units are also used on Honda's Hybid Insight and Civic sedan.
Saturn is using electric power steering on the Vue SUV and the Ion sedan. QuadraSteer, GM's rear wheel steering system optional on some full size trucks is a true electric steering system with no mechanical connection to the steering wheel. When GM introduces the 2004 Malibu, it will use Delphi's new E*STEER unit. Other OEM vendors of electric power steering systems are Visteon with EPAS and ZF Freidrichshafen AG with ZF Servolectric."
Re:George W (Score:2, Informative)
It's not magic (Score:2, Informative)
come on people. it's not magic. It's battery powered. you didn't realize when the batteries died the thing would fall over?
Re:Their own dumbass fault (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Society gets dumber by the minute (Score:5, Informative)
That's one of the reasons it falls over, because it is inherently unstable.
His point stands.
(Of course there are courses of action a cyclist can take to prevent falling over. I can stay essentially motionless on a bicycle for an arbitrary amount of time. It's easier on a track bike which has direct drive like a child's tricycle. Rider skill can be substituted for gyroscopic effect, which on a bicycle is really minimal even at speed. The castor effect is far stronger, as is just plain "body English" since the rider's weight exerts much greater force than the gyroscopic forces. Thinking of a unicycle can give a better intuitive idea of this, as they never operate at enough speed for gyroscopic effects to have any import, and if you stop pedaling they fall right over, because they are inherently unstable. Yes, I'm a bit of an expert in the field, a frame building, racing physicist who's first real research project was on the stability of bicycles and currently works on human powered machinery)
KFG
Re:A bicycle is NOT unstable when moving.. (Score:2, Informative)
This is actually not true. Bicycle wheels are too light to be effective gyroscopes (motorcycle wheels are another story). If you spin one in your hands, you'll notice some resistance, but it's not nearly enough to keep a rider upright. Bicycle riders actually balance themselves unconsciously. It's easier at higher speed because you need to make much smaller movements (plus the rake/trail of the steering makes you stay straight once you're balanced).
See section 9.35 of the req.bicycle.* faq [faqs.org] for more details: